


Look Right Through

by suyari



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Chuck Lives, Implied Mpreg, Kid Fic, M/M, Sibling Incest
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-09
Updated: 2015-11-09
Packaged: 2018-04-30 20:38:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,991
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5178794
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/suyari/pseuds/suyari
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Chuck is fourteen and away in Academy when Uncle Scott is dishonorably discharged from the PPDC.  He’s fifteen when they put him in a sim with his father. Chuck is twenty-one when he finds out.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Look Right Through

Chuck is fourteen and away in Academy when Uncle Scott is dishonorably discharged from the PPDC. He doesn’t even get a call from home about it. He hears it from his roommates, checks the validity of it on the news, and calls home himself. His father doesn’t want to talk about it. There’s no reason given and everyone expects Chuck to know, but he doesn’t and his father won’t tell him and he knows Uncle Scott would never do any of the things people whisper as causes. He gets into so many fights over it he’s nearly booted from the program. He’s sure they probably would have too if he didn’t have the highest scores, if he weren’t the most capable Ranger at the most tender age the PPDC has ever churned out. But the whole incident’s come at a price. Any shreds of drift compatibility Chuck may have had with anyone in his class are long gone and he graduates, but he’s essentially useless because for as promising a career his scores have indicated, he’s all but worthless without a co-pilot. 

He’s fifteen when they put him in a sim with his father. Dad’s useless too. One of the best the PPDC’s ever had, capable of piloting anything they threw him in, with a sharp mind and excellent reflexes that had worked in their favor time and again. But without Uncle Scott, he’s just another Ranger. Skilled, experienced, but short of teaching - and they really need him out in the field, not back in the Academy - just gathering dust in the ‘Dome. So they take two frayed ends and tie them together and to as much surprise as resignation, it works. 

Chuck and his Dad aren’t just drift compatible, they work well together. They manage to take everything about their relationship that chokes them on a daily basis and vent it, shoving it through Kaiju until they’re trailing littered corpses. But no matter how many drifts they undergo, no matter how dangerous the mission or how distracted his dad gets or how much Chuck pushes, he never can figure out what _happened_.

Chuck is twenty-one when he finds out. Lost in a coma and circling death, his Dad dives in after him and it’s all or nothing. Maybe he even uses it as a lure, Chuck’s not exactly sure. All he knows is that he went down into the Trench not knowing and he wakes post-Breach collapse _certain_. He wakes, blinks foggily at the ceiling and feels a rage that boils his blood faster and hotter than any radiation poisoning could ever have a chance to. 

His father knows. Of course he does. He’s happy but he’s reserved. Doesn’t even try to hug him, though his eyes are glassy when Chuck glares a hole right through him every time he visits. Rage powers Chuck’s physical therapy. Determination like he’s never felt before. He’s going to find his Uncle and he’s going to make it right. And he’s going to be strong enough to punch his father in the goddamn face without falling over so fucking help him!

He’s just managing to shuffle along by himself when Uncle Scott makes the decision for them. Turns up out of the blue and charms his way into the Shatterdome. Chuck looks up from his maddening forward crawl to see him just standing there, as if the last ten years haven’t happened. He smiles and Chuck feels the urge to run kick up in his chest, but his fucking legs won’t cooperate. “Hey, Charlie,” he says gently. “How’re y’ feeling, love?” And Chuck is a hardened Jaeger Pilot. He’s a goddamn Ranger with the most Kaiju kills on record. He’s survived being blown up at the bottom of the motherfucking ocean. So of course he’s sobbing like a stupid kid in no time at all. 

Uncle Scott crosses over to him and wraps his arms about him and Chuck loses all the strength he’s been stubbornly clinging to. His uncle supports him, eases them down into the lightly matted floor and pulls Chuck into his lap, where Chuck curls up like he’s still ten and can fit - they manage anyway. 

And it’s strange. It’s so strange. Because, it’s too alike and not at all the same, and the face looking back at him is so much like the face he used to try not to see in passing reflective surfaces after he’d lost his mom. His cousin--his _brother_ looks **just** like him and nothing like him at all. Odie - and really with his family and their tragic bullshit, because fuck tradition and Odysseus, really?! - smiles a lot. He’s a happy kid, really taken by the whole affair. He’s got no idea who any of them are to him of course. Uncle Scott’s been sort of vague about it. And he’s disappointed there aren’t any Jaegers left to see up close. But he’s also overwhelmed at being in a real Shatterdome and getting to meet a real life Jaeger pilot. And the kid hasn’t got a fucking clue. 

Chuck blinks at his uncle as Odie blathers on excitedly, hands waving around and mouth going a mile a minute. Uncle Scott’s just looking at his son like he’s the goddamn sun, and it hurts in places Chuck’s not used to addressing. Chuck offers to give them the tour, and accepts Uncle Scott’s support under his arm. They run into Becket and Odie has something like a seizure. His whole body jerks and he goes all red and squeaks around his rapidly wildly fluctuating breathing. Uncle Scott laughs and Chuck gets dragged along as he and Becket hug like old friends, which actually they sort of are, as it turns out. Becket crouches down and gives Odie that stupid smile of his that always makes Chuck’s stomach flip and Odie nearly passes out when he hugs him. 

“ _Raleigh Becket **hugged me**_ ,” Odie squeaks breathless when Becket waves and carries on down the hall. He’s got to meet up with Mako but he makes Uncle Scott promise to meet him up later to catch up before he leaves. 

“Oi,” Chuck tells him, crooking a finger. “Come ‘ere!”

Odie does, in sort of a drifting haze. Chuck tilts his head up via his chin and meets his slightly glazed eyes. “You know who I am right?” 

Odie nods. 

It’s a bitch and a half but fuck Becket anyway! Chuck leans over and plants a solid kiss on Odie’s forehead. When he pulls away Odie’s eyes are so wide they look like they’re about to pop out of his head. Mission accomplished, they shuffle off down the rest of the hall. Uncle Scott won’t stop laughing. Only laughs harder every time one of them looks at him. 

In all fairness, Chuck wasn’t expecting to run into Dad. Mostly because he doesn’t think Dad deserves to see them after everything. Sure, he did what he did because he’d been worried. But he’d also done it in anger. Scott hadn’t meant to get pregnant, it’d been an accident. And he’d been hiding it because he was so torn over what to do about it. He’d wanted to keep the baby, but knew he couldn’t, not in their line of work. But, they’d been through so much shit all their lives with Scott being a carrier, there was a lot to prove. Nearly dying that day had caused a slip that had had the whole truth spilling out between them and Dad had gotten so angry that Uncle Scott would endanger their lives - his and the baby’s - that he hadn’t even taken the time to talk to him about it. Had stormed right out of the conn-pod and gone straight to Stacker and couldn’t take it back after no matter what he felt about it. Uncle Scott had disappeared and never contacted them again - until today - and Dad had had to live with never knowing what had happened to them. Which Chuck had always found fitting, if not punishment enough. Because _he_ had also lost his entire family that day, and Dad had never once tried to reconcile that. 

So he’s not entirely happy to see the Marshall when he suddenly turns the corner and nearly collides with them. At first Dad doesn’t even see Uncle Scott. He’s too busy getting angry with Chuck for being so far from Medical on his own. And then Odie gasps, “It’s Herc Hansen!” and it all goes to shit. Because the moment Dad looks down the world completely upends and fuck but Chuck had wanted nothing more than to stay angry with his father for the rest of his life. But he can’t. He just can’t. Not with the way Dad just crumples. He drops to his knees and throws his arms around Odie and hugs him tight and just starts to sob. Odie looks up in alarm, confused how such a little thing like him could break such a strong Ranger as the Marshall of the PPDC. 

“It’s okay, sweetheart,” Uncle Scott says. “Just give him a minute, okay?” 

Odie nods. It’s clear if nothing else, he trusts his father completely, and that’s nearly enough to break what little is left standing in Chuck. His little arms come up and wrap around Herc and he pats his back with steady hands that only make the Marshall make a sound Chuck’s never heard before and has the man curling about him all the tighter. 

Uncle Scott sighs and props Chuck up against a wall carefully. He cups his cheek and kisses him on the nose like he used to when he was little - and it’s all so fucking surreal Chuck’s pretty sure he’s still in the fucking coma - before crouching down beside them and laying a gentle hand to his brother’s back. “Herc,” he says softly. 

Dad turns, Odie scooped off the ground and grabs Uncle Scott up, shoving his face into his neck. He’s not saying anything, not that Chuck can hear, but Uncle Scott rubs his back and murmurs, “I know, I know…” into his hair. When he starts pressing little kisses into his brother’s hair, Chuck knows he’s back to stay. 

It’s odd, he thinks. How it isn’t odd at all. How Uncle Scott and Odie just sort of fit back in like they never left. How their family feels full to bursting with happiness, even after everything. Chuck can’t explain any of it, even to himself. But he’s glad he climbed into Striker and played his part and he’s glad he didn’t die down there, even if he’s had to deal with nothing but pain and endless hours of bullshit. Because everything he’s done, even if he wasn’t aware at the time, he’d done for his family. And because he did those things and because he’s endured what he has he’s able to have what he’s always wanted, like some prize at the end of everything. 

Odie is the best little brother anyone could ever ask for, and he’s everything Chuck isn’t. But he’s Hansen enough. He’s sure to remind them all of it every chance he gets. 

“You know,” Odie says, licking his ice cream cone and swinging his leg as they watch the sun go down across the water. “Raleigh’s single.” 

Chuck’s eyes drift sideways. “Is there a reason you’re sharing this information or are y’ just making conversation?”

Odie shrugs. “I’m just saying.” He takes a bite from his cone, and he’s gonna end up spilling it in his lap if he keeps eating it at that angle. “If I were older…”

“Oi!” Chuck snaps, straightening and slamming his hands on the railing. Because no, no his baby brother does _not_ have a crush on Raleigh fucking Becket!

“Yeah, so...but, y’ know… _you’re_ older, Charlie.” 

This kid. “Yeah, guess I am,” he concedes. 

“One of us should probably date him.” 

And Chuck can’t help it. He laughs.


End file.
